When I was playing for the NFL, St. Louis Cardinals in 1968, 54 years ago, the team did not have a weight room in our training facility. Syracuse University (we were national champions) and Cardinal coaches and trainers said, “weight lifting is bad for you, it will make you ‘tight’ and you can’t move as well – period”.
When two rookie teammates showed up at our Cardinals training camp, Bob Reynolds, Bowling Green University, and Dan Goich, Cal Berkeley, were college linemen and weight lifters. When I met them at the start of training camp, when we were talking, they asked me, “Dave, where is the weight room? We would like to lift”. “No weight room or weights here," I said.
Fifty-four years later all athletes, from junior high schoolers to the pros, from race car drivers to runners to golfers to football players, strength train, typically using weights. Most high schools have a weight room or a place to ‘lift’ and the equipment and weights.
What has happened during these 50 years? The view that strength training will diminish your performance was just plain wrong the opposite is true, performance is hugely enhanced with strength training. And we know science backs this up.
